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A large population of threatened lowland tapir, a strange beast
with a trunk-like nose that frequents rain forests and
grasslands, has been found in a series of parks spanning the
remote Peru-Bolivia border in South America.

The census, conducted by scientists from the Wildlife
Conservation Society and elsewhere, estimated there are at
least 14,500 of the animals in the area. The study, published
last month in the journal Integrative Zoology, relied on
photographs from camera traps, as well as interviews with
park rangers and subsistence hunters, according to a release from
the WCS. The animals live in a series of connecting parks in
northwest Bolivia and southeastern Peru.

Lowland tapirs, also known as Brazilian tapirs, are the
largest land mammals that live solely in South America, growing
up to 660 pounds (300 kg), according to the WCS. They are
considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation
of Nature, a global network of government and private groups that
assesses the extinction risk of species. Their numbers have
decreased by more than 30 percent in the last 33 years, and are
expected to decline by the same amount in the next 30 or so
years, the ICUN reports. They are threatened by logging, habitat
loss, hunting and competition with livestock.

"Although this rate of decline seems improbable considering the
occurrence in the vast Amazon — the fact is that the species has
been extirpated over large portions of its range and severely
reduced in other large portions," according to the IUCN. "Lowland
tapir populations seem unlikely to persist anywhere humans occur
at densities any greater than 1 per square kilometer [2.6 per
square mile]."

The network of parks where the tapirs were counted, known as the
Madidi-Tambopata landscape, was also found to be a vital
stronghold for jaguars. "These results underline the
fundamental importance of protected areas for the conservation of
larger species of wildlife threatened by hunting and habitat
loss," lead study author Robert Wallace said in the statement.

Tapirs are doing better in parks than in other, unprotected
areas, the study found. In one river valley, populations of the
animal have rebounded since the creation of Madidi National Park
in 1995, the WCS reported. This park is
one of the most diverse places on Earth, home to 11 percent
of the world's birds, more than 200 species of mammals, 300
species of fish and 12,000 plant varieties, according to the
release.

The animals were found in Madidi, Pilón Lajas and Apolobamba
national parks in Bolivia, and Bahuaja Sonene and Tambopata
national parks in neighboring Peru.